PCIe Bus Error Status 00001100

Under Linux, PCIe Bus Error messages can occur on systems with activated Active State Power Management (ASPM). The messages refer to corrected error status/mask=00001100/00002000 errors. You can avoid these problems by disabling ASPM with the kernel parameter pcie_aspm=off. You can find out how to do this in this Wiki article.

Contents

Problem Description

The kernel logs error status/mask=00001100/00002000 errors via the PCIe advanced error reporting (AER) function to the /var/log/syslog log file. The errors themselves are fixed according to the log entries (severity=corrected), but the repeated entries make the log file confusing.

For example, a corresponding entry in /var/log/syslog looks like this in Debian:

Affected Systems

According to a bug report in Ubuntu, this problem mainly affects laptops.[1] In our opinion, the problem can potentially arise with any system with enabled ASPM. We have seen the problem with a server system with Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS and also with Debian 9 (Stretch) (with Linux Kernel 4.9.0. -3-amd64) with ASPM enabled, especially if network cards (e. g. Intel Intel XXV710, Intel X710, Intel X550) were installed.

Solution

In our tests we were able to solve the problem by setting the kernel parameter pcie_aspm=off.

Adjust the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT variable as follows, save the file and close the editor:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet pcie_aspm=off"

After the configuration change, update the Grub Bootloader with the following command:

sudo update-grub

Finally, restart the program.

In addition to this solution, Ubuntu's bug report also lists the option to disable PCIe Advanced Error Reporting.[1] However, we recommend that you enable PCIe Advanced Error Reporting to log other potential PCIe errors. For more information about the complete list of kernel boot paramenters, see the kernel documentation.[2] Here are extracts of the information for pci=noaer and pcie_aspm=off:

pci=option[,option...] [PCI] various PCI subsystem options:
[...]
noaer [PCIE] If the PCIEAER kernel config parameter is
enabled, this kernel boot option can be used to
disable the use of PCIE advanced error reporting.
[...]
pcie_aspm= [PCIE] Forcibly enable or disable PCIe Active State Power
Management.
off Disable ASPM.
force Enable ASPM even on devices that claim not to support it.
WARNING: Forcing ASPM on may cause system lockups.

Werner Fischer, working in the Web Operations & Knowledge Transfer team at Thomas-Krenn, completed his studies of Computer and Media Security at FH Hagenberg in Austria. He is a regular speaker at many conferences like LinuxTag, OSMC, OSDC, LinuxCon, and author for various IT magazines. In his spare time he enjoys playing the piano and training for a good result at the annual Linz marathon relay.